Skip to main content
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Peer-Reviewed Research Articles

AGC kinase inhibitors regulate STING signaling through SGK-dependent and SGK-independent mechanisms. 2023. Cell Chem Biol. S2451-9456(23)00369-0. PMID: 37939709.

  • Castillo Cabrera, J., Dang, H., Graves, A., Zhang, Z., Torres-Castillo, J, Li, K., King, Z, Liu, P., Aubé, J., Bear, J.E., Damania, B., Hagan, R.S., Baldwin, A.S.

SETDB1 Triple Tudor Domain Ligand, (R,R)-59, Promotes Methylation of Akt1 in Cells. 2023. ACS Chem Biol.3c00280. PMID: 37556795.

  • Uguen, M., Deng, Y., Li, F., Shell, D.J., Norris-Drouin, J.L., Stashko, M.A., Ackloo, S., Arrowsmith, C.H., James, L.I., Liu, P., Pearce, K.H., Frye, S.V.

Cancer hijacks enzyme motif mutations to facilitate tumorigenesis. 2023. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 220(10): e20222056. PMID: 37382881.

  • Chen, J., Zhang, X., Tan, X. and Liu, P.

Development of VHL-recruiting STING PROTACs that suppress innate immunity. 2023. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 80(6): 149. PMID: 37183204.

  • Zhu, Z., Johnson, R.L., Zhang, Z., Herring, L.E., Jiang, G., Damania, B., James, L.I.#, and Liu, P.#

AtomNet-Aided OTUD7B Inhibitor Discovery and Validation. 2023. 15(2): 517. PMID: 36672466.

  • Chen, J., Bolhuis, D.L., Laggner, C., Kong, D., Yu, L., Wang, X., Emanuele, M.J., Brown, N.G.#, Liu, P.#

STING suppresses mitochondrial VDAC2 to govern RCC growth independent of innate immunity. 2023. Advanced Science. PMID: 36445063.

  • Zhu, Z., Zhou, X., Du, H., Cloer, E.W., Zhang, J., Mei, L., Wang, Y., Tan, X., Hepperla, A.J., Simon, J.M., Cook, J.G., Major, M.B., Dotti, G., Liu, P.

DNA-PK promotes activation of the survival kinase AKT in response to DNA damage through an mTORC2-ECT2 pathway. 2022. Science Signaling. 15(715): eabh2290. PMID: 34982576.

  • Liu, L., Dai, X., Yin, S., Liu, P., Hill, E.G., Wei, W., and Gan, W.

SPOP and OTUD7A control EWS-FLI1 protein stability to govern Ewing sarcoma growth. 2021. Advanced Science. PMID: 34060252.

  • Su, S.#, Chen, J.#, Jiang, Y,#, Wang, Y., Vital, T., Zhang, J., Laggner, C., Nguyen, K.T., Zhu, Z., Prevatte, A.W., Barker, N.K., Herring, L.E., Davis, I.J.,* and Liu, P

Lenalidomide downregulates ACE2 protein abundance to alleviate infection by SARS-CoV-2 spike protein conditioned pseudoviruses. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. 6(1):182. PMID:33972500.

  • Su, S.#, Chen, J.#, Wang, Y.#, Wong, L.M., Zhu, Z., Jiang, G. and Liu, P.

Synergistic efficacy of combined EGFR and HDAC inhibitors overcomes tolerance to EGFR monotherapy in salivary mucoepidermoid carcinoma. 2021. Oral Oncol. 115:105166. PMID: 33581505.

  • Parag-Sharma, K., Tasoulas, J., Musicant, A.M., do Nascimento-Filho, C.H.V., Zhu, Z., Twomey, C., Liu, P., Castilho, R.M., Amelio, A.L.

 Protocol for Monitoring DNA-Triggered cGAS/STING Signaling in Mammalian Cells and Mice. 2020. STAR Protocols. 1, 100171.

  • Wang, Y.*, Ma, Z.*, Damamia, B.# and Liu, P.#

 Structure basis of nucleosome-dependent cGAS inhibition. 2020. eabd0609. PMID: 32913000.

  • Boyer, J.A.*, Spangler, C.J.*, Strauss, J.D., Cesmat, A.P., Liu, P., McGinty, R.K. #, Zhang, Q#.

Streptavidin Promotes DNA Binding and Activation of cGAS to Enhance Innate Immunity. iScience. 23(9):101463. PMID: 32861998.

  • Zhang, Y.*, Ma, Z.*, Wang, Y.*, Boyer, J., Ni, G., Cheng, L., Su, S., Zhang, Z., Zhu, Z., Qian, J., Su, L., Zhang, Q., Damania, B. #, and Liu, P. #

FAM13A Represses AMPK Activity and Regulates Hepatic Glucose and Lipid Metabolism. 2020. 23(3):100928. PMID: 32151973.

  • Lin, X., Liou, Y.H., Li, Y., Gong, L., Li, Y., Hao, Y., Pham, B., Xu, S., Jiang, Z., Li, L., Peng, Y., Qiao, D., Lin, H., Liu, P., Wei, W., Zhang, G., Lee, C.H., Zhou, X.

LATS suppresses mTORC1 activity to directly coordinate Hippo and mTORC1 pathways in growth control. 2020. Nature Cell Biology. 246-256. PMID: 32015438.

  • Gan, W., Dai, X., Dai, X., Xie, J., Yin, S., Zhu, J., Wang, C., Liu, Y., Guo, J., Wang, M., Liu, J., Hu, J., Quinton, R.J., Ganem, N.J., Liu, P., Asara, J.M., Pandolfi, P.P., Yang, Y., He, Z., Gao, G., Wei, W.

TBK1 Limits mTORC1 by Promoting Phosphorylation of Raptor Ser877. 2019. Scientific Reports. (9): 13470. PMID: 31530866.

  • Antonia, R.J., Castillo, J., Herring, L.E., Serafin, D.S., Liu, P., Graves, L.M., Baldwin, A.S. and Hagan, R.S.

BRD4 promotes gastric cancer progression and metastasis through acetylation-dependent stabilization of Snail. 2019. Cancer Research. pii: canres.0442.2019. PMID: 31311807.

  • Qin, Z.Y., Wang, T., Su, S., Shen, L.T., Zhu, G.X., Liu, Q., Zhang, L., Liu, K.W., Zhang, Y., Zhou, Z.H., Zhang, X.N., Wen, L.Z., Yao, Y.L., Sun, W.J., Guo, Y., Liu, K.J., Liu, L., Wang, X.W., Wei, Y.L., Wang, J., Xiao, H.L., Liu, P., Bian, X.W., Chen, D.F., Wang, B.

MERTK governed Novel Site Akt phosphorylation alleviates SAV1 suppression. 2019. Nature Communications. 10(1):1515. PMID: 30944303.

  • Jiang, Y.,* Zhang, Y.,* Leung, J.Y., Fan, C., Popov,K.I., Su, S., Qian, J., Wang, X., Hanks, A. H., Ubil, E., Xiang, Y., Davis, I., Dokholyan, N. V., Wu, G., Perou, C. M., Kim, W. Y., EarP, S. H., and Liu, P.

AKT methylation by SETDB1 promotes AKT kinase activity and oncogenic functions. 2019. Nature Cell Biology. doi: 10.1038. PMID: 30692625.

  • Guo, J., Dai, X., Laurent, B., Zheng, N., Gan, W., Zhang, J., Guo, A., Yuan, M., Liu, P., Asara, J.M., Toker, A., Shi, Y., Pandolfi, P.P., and Wei, W.

K63-linkage poly-ubiquitin chains bind DNA to facilitate DNA damage repair. 2018. Science Signaling. 11: pi: eaar8133. PIMD: 29871913.

  • Liu, P.*#, Gan, W., Su, S., Hauenstein, A., Fu, T-m, Brasher, B., Schwerdtfeger, C., Liang, A. C., Xu, M. and Wei, W*#. (*co-first author, #co-corresponding author)

The mTOR-S6K Pathway Links Growth Signaling to DNA Damage Response by Targeting RNF168. 2018. Nature Cell Biology. (20):320-331. PMID: 29403037.

  • Xie, X.*, Hu, H.*, Xinyuan Tong, X.*, Li, L.*, Liu, X., Chen, M., Yuan, H., Xie, X., Li, Q., Zhang, Y., Ouyang, H., Wei, M., Huang, J., Liu, P., Gan, W., Liu, Y., Xie, A., Kuai, X., Chirn, G., Zhou, H., Zeng, R., Hu, R., Qin, J., Meng, F., Wei, W., Ji, H., Gao, D. (*co-first author)

The E3 Ubiquitin Ligase SCF(Cyclin F) Transmits AKT Signaling to the Cell-Cycle Machinery. 2017. Cell Reports. 20(13):3212-3222. PMID: 28954236.

  • Choudhury, R., Bonacci, T., Wang, X., Truong, A., Arceci, A., Zhang, Y., Mills, C.A., Kernan, J.L., Liu, P., Emanuele, M.J.

Prostate cancer-associated SPOP mutations confer resistance to BET inhibitors through stabilization of BRD4. 2017. Nature Medicine. 23(9):1063-1071. PMID: 28805820.

  • Dai, X.*, Gan, W.*, Li, X.*, Wang, S., Zhang, W., Huang, L., Liu, S., Zhong, Q., Guo, J., Zhang, J., Chen, T., Shimizu, K., Beca, F., Blattner, M., Vasudevan, D., Buckley, D.L., Qi, J., Buser, L., Liu, P., Inuzuka, H., Beck, A.H., Wang, L., Wild, P.J., Garraway, L.A., Rubin, M.A., Barbieri, C.E., Wong, K.K., Muthuswamy, S.K., Huang, J., Chen, Y., Bradner, J.E., Wei, W. (*co-first author)

TRAF2 and OTUD7B govern a ubiquitin-dependent switch regulating mTORC2 signaling complex. 2017. Nature. 545(7654): 365-369. PMID: 28489822.

  • Wang, B.*, Jie, Z.*, Joo, D., Ordureau, A., Liu, P., Guo, J., Gan, W., Zhang, J., North, B., Dai, X., Cheng, X., Bian, X., Zhang, L., Harper, J.W., Sun, S. and Wei, W. (*co-first author)

The APC/C E3 Ligase Complex Activator FZR1 Restricts BRAF Oncogenic Function. Cancer Discovery. 2017. DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-16-0647. PMID: 28174173.

  • Wan, L.*, Chen, M.*, Cao, J.X.*, Dai, X.P., Yin, Q., Zhang, J.F., Song, S.J., Lu, Y., Liu, J., Inuzuka, H., Katon, J.M., Berry, K., Fung, J., Ng, C., Liu, P., Song, M.S., Xue, L., Bronson, R.T., Kirschner, M.W., Cui, R., Pandofli, P.P., and Wei, W. (*co-first author)

pVHL suppresses kinase activity of Akt in a proline-hydroxylation dependent manner. Science. 2016. 353(6302): 929-32. PMID: 27563096.

  • Guo, J., Chakraborty, A.A., Liu, P., Gan, W., Zheng, X., Inuzuka, H., Wang, B., Zhang, J., Zhang, L., Yuan, M., Novak, J., Cheng, J.Q., Toker, A., Signoretti, S., Zhang, Q., Asara, J.M., Kaelin, W.G. Jr and Wei. W.

Inhibition of Rb Phosphorylation Leads to mTORC2-Mediated Activation of Akt. 2016. Molecular Cell. 62(6): 929-942. PMID: 27237051.

  • Zhang, J.*, Xu, K.*, Liu, P., Geng, Y., Wang, B., Gan, W., Guo, J., Wu, F., Chin, Y.R., Berrios, C., Lien, E.C., Toker, A., DeCaprio, J.A., Sicinski, P. and Wei, W. (*co-first author)

SPOP Promotes Ubiquitination and Degradation of the ERG Oncoprotein to Suppress Prostate Cancer Progression. 2015. Molecular Cell. 59(6): 917-30. PMID: 26344095.

  • Gan, W. *, Dai, X. *, Lunardi, A. *, Li, Z. *, Inuzuka, H., Liu, P., Varmeh, S., Zhang, J., Cheng, L., Sun, Y., Asara, J. M., Beck, A. H., Huang, J., Pandolfi, P. P. and Wei, W. (*co-first author)

PtdIns(3,4,5)P3-dependent Activation of the mTORC2 Kinase Complex. 2015. Cancer Discovery. pii: CD-15-0460. PMID: 26293922.

  • Liu, P., Gan, W., Chin, Y.R., Ogura, K., Guo, J., Zhang, J., Wang, B., Blenis, J., Cantley, L.C., Toker, A., Su, B. and Wei, W.

Lysine-specific demethylase 1 promotes the stemness and chemoresistance of Lgr5+ liver cancer initiating cells by suppressing negative regulators of β-catenin signaling. 2015. Oncogene. 34(24): 3188-3198. PMID: 25893304.

  • Lei, Z.J., Wang, J., Xiao, H.L., Guo, Y., Wang, T., Li, Q., Liu, L., Luo, X., Fan, L.L., Lin, L., Mao, C.Y., Wang, S.N., Wei, Y.L., Lan, C.H., Jiang, J., Yang, X.J., Liu, P., Chen, D.F., Wang, B.

Akt-mediated Phosphorylation of XLF Impairs Non-homologous End Joining DNA Repair. 2015. Molecular Cell. 57:1-14.

  • Liu, P.*, Gan, W.*, Guo, C., Xie, A., Gao, D., Guo, J., Zhang, J., Willis, N., Su, A., Asara, J.M., Scully, R. and Wei, W.  (*co-first author)

Acetylation-dependent regulation of essential iPS-inducing factors: a regulatory crossroad for pluripotency and tumorigenesis. 2014. Cancer Medicine. 3(5): 1211-1224.

  • Dai, X.*, Liu, P.*, Lau, A.W.*, Liu, Y., Inuzuka, H. (*co-first author)

SIRT1 phosphorylation by AMP-activated Protein Kinase regulates p53 acetylation. 2014. American Journal of Cancer Research. 4(3): 245-255.

  • Lau, A.*, Liu, P.*, Inuzuka, H.# and Gao, D.# (*co-first author, #co-corresponding author)

Cell-cycle-regulated activation of Akt kinase by phosphorylation at its carboxyl terminus. 2014. Nature. 508(7497): 541-545.

  • Liu, P., Begley, M., Michowski, W., Inuzuka, H., Ginzberg, M., Gao, D., Tsou, P., Gan, W., Papa, A., Kim, B,M., Wan, L., Singh, A., Zhai, B., Yuan, M., Wang, Z., Gygi, S.P., Lee, T.H., Lu, K.P., Toker, A., Pandolfi, P.P., Asara, J.M., Kirschner, M.W., Sicinski, P., Cantley, L., Wei, W.

SCF(β-TRCP)-mediated degradation of NEDD4 inhibits tumorigenesis through modulating the PTEN/Akt signaling pathway. 2014. Oncotarget. 5(4): 1026-1037.

  • Liu, J.*, Wan, L.*, Liu, P.*, Inuzuka, H., Liu, J., Wang, Z., Wei, W. (*co-first author)

Sin1 phosphorylation impairs mTORC2 complex integrity and inhibits downstream Akt signaling to suppress tumorigenesis. 2013. Nature Cell Biology. 15(11): 1340-1350.

  • Liu, P., Gan, W., Inuzuka, H., Lazorchak, A. S., Gao, D., Arojo, O., Liu, D., Wan, L., Zhai, B., Yu, Y., Yuan, M., Kim, B. M., Shai, S., Menon, S., Gygi, S. P., Lee, T. H., Asara, J. M., Manning, B. D., Blenis, J., Su, B. and Wei, W.

Regulation of APC(Cdh1) E3 ligase activity by the Fbw7/cyclin E signaling axis contributes to the tumor suppressor function of Fbw7. 2013. Cell Research. 23(7): 947-961.

  • Lau, W.A., Inuzuka, H., Fukushima, H., Wan, L., Liu, P., Gao, D., Sun, Y., Wei, W.

SCF-mediated Cdh1 degradation defines a negative feedback system that coordinates cell-cycle progression. 2013. Cell Reports. 4(4): 803-816.

  • Fukushima, H.*, Ogura, K.*, Wan, L.*, Lu, Ying*, Li, V., Gao, D., Liu, P., Lau, A.W., Wu, T., Kirschner, M. W., Inuzuka, H. and Wei, W.

DNA damage-induced activation of ATM promotes b-TRCP-mediated Mdm2 ubiquitination and destruction. 2012. Oncotarget. 3(9): 1026-35.

  • Wang, Z., Inuzuka, H., Zhong, J., Fukushima, H., Wan, L., Liu, P., Wei, W.

mTOR Drives Its Own Activation via SCFβ-TrCP-Dependent Degradation of the mTOR Inhibitor DEPTOR. 2011. Molecular Cell. 44 (2): 290-303.

  • Gao, D.M., Inuzuka, H., Tan, M., Fukushima, H., Locasale, J., Liu, P., Zhai, B., Wan, L., Shaik, S., Lyssiot, C., Gygi, S., Cantley, L., Asara, J.M., Toker, A., Harper, J.W. and Wei, W.

Cis prolinemediated pSer5-dephosphorylation by the RNA polymerase II CTD phosphatase Ssu72. 2010. Journal of Biological Chemistry.286: 5717-5726.

  • Werner-Allen, J.W., Lee, C.J., Liu, P., Nicely, N.I., Wang, S., Greenleaf, A.L., Zhou, P.

CDK12 is a transcription elongation-associated CTD kinase, the metazoan ortholog of yeast Ctk1. 2010. Genes and Development. 24: 2303-2316.

  • Bartkowiak B.*, Liu, P.*, Phatnani, H.P., Fuda, N.J., Cooper, J.J., Price, D.H., Adelman, K., Lis, J.T. and Greenleaf, A.L. (*co-first author)

Genetic organization, length conservation, and evolution of RNA polymerase II carboxyl-terminal domain. 2010. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 27: 2628-2641.

  • Liu, P., Kenney, J.L., Stiller, J.W. and Greenleaf, A.L.

The essential sequence elements required for RNAP II carboxyl-terminal domain function in yeast and their evolutionary conservation. 2008. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 25: 719-727.

  • Liu, P., Greenleaf, A.L. and Stiller J.W.